Pad interlocking apparatus

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is an apparatus for interconnecting the opposed Ushaped pad members of football shoulder pads. The interlocking device includes a pair of lugs interconnected by a strap. The lugs have expanded end portions adapted to be inserted and locked into elongated slots in the opposed U-shaped pads.

United States Patent m1 Truelove [m I 3,740,762 Julie- 26, 1973 3/1922 Hanney. 24/201 A UX 3,431,560 3/1969 ,Austin.. 2/2 1 1,840,896 1/ 1932' Groh 24/201 A UX 2,545,039 3/1951 Mithe1 2/2 3,158,871 12/1964 Morgan 2/2 428,100 5/1890 Hutchinson 24/201 A UX 1,037,045 8/1912 Patton 24/201 A UK Primary Examiner -Alfred R. Guest Attorney-Giles C. Clegg, J12, Jack A. Kanz and Richard Bee 1 I 57 ABSTRACT Disclosed is an apparatus for interconnecting the opposed U-shaped pad members of football shoulder pads. The interlocking device includes a pair of lugs interconnected by a strap. The lugs have expanded end portions adapted to be inserted and locked into elongated slots in the opposed U-shaped pads.

41 PAD INTERLOCKING APPARATUS [75] Inventor; John Truelove, Vemon, Tex. 73 Assignee: ProtectivePads Inc., Grand Prairie, Tex. I v 22 Filed: Apr. 22, 1971 [211 A 1.No.:136,490

s21 U.s.c|. 2/2 [51] I 11. cl, 41d 13/00 [58] Field of Search"; 2/2; 24/230 TC, 201 A, 24/221 [56] I References Cited UNITEDI STATES PATENTS 1,640,042 58/1927" Latina"; 2/2 ,644,594 110/1927 Jones. ..24/2o1Aux 74,649. 2111168 Whitney.... ..24/201AUX 2,163,463 6/1939 Kennedy ..2/2

' I H1 1h 1 1| 111w \II 23% I5 A 11}- I2O\,

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures l2 I I7 I Jil 1 {Zi il H; '1 1|. J l5 PAD INTERLOCKING APPARATUS This invention relates to shoulder pad apparatus.

More particularly it relates to apparatus for interlocking individual portions of otherwise conventional shoulder pads together as worn by the user.

Protective padding of various designs is worn by participants in many contact sports. For example, football players conventionally wear a shoulder pad apparatus which generally comprises a pair of opposed U-shaped members adapted to be placed over opposite shoulders of the wearer. These U-shaped members define a central opening therebetween for receiving the neck of the wearer. The front and back portions, comprising the legs of the U, are adapted to cover at least portions of the upper chest and upper back of the wearer. The central portions comprising the base of the U cover the respective shoulders of the wearer.

Conventional football shoulder pads are composed of a plastic hull having resilient padding attached to the underside thereof and moveable epuletts attached at the base of the U to extend over the shoulder of the wearer.

The legs of the U-shaped members are conventionally joined by lacing members or the like passing alternatively through eyelets or other devices on the op-.

posed legs forming a lace in the central front and central back of the wearer. The lacing members allow the wearer to attach the two members to form a unitary shoulder pad when worn but provide means for disengaging the opposed members to allow the device to be removed from the wearer. Furthermore, when the shoulder pad apparatus is in place on the wearer the lacing members allow the individual members to move slightly with respect to each other aiding in the comfort of the apparatus to the wearer and the usefulness of the device.

Conventional lacing members, however, commonly utilize a plurality of eyelets in each member. Accordingly, the lacing member must be alternately inserted and laced through the opposing legs of the device. Such lacing is obviously time consuming and tedious. Furthermore, the laces are frequently broken and must be replaced. Problems are also encountered in attempting to remove the conventional shoulder pads from an injured player since each lacing member must be withdrawn from each eyelet without unduly moving the wearer.

In accordance with the present invention an interlocking device is provided'to replace the conventional lacing apparatus. The interconnecting device of this invention basically comprises a pair of horizontally disposed flexible lacing straps each carrying a rigid tongue 1 secured to the opposed ends thereof. The horizontal straps are joined by a vertical strap to form an H- shaped device.

The tongues carry extended end portions disposed in the plane of the strap while at least a portion of the tongue is disposed at an angle of substantially 90 to the plane of the strap and extended end portion.

A pair of horizontally disposed slots is provided in each leg of the shoulder pad members and adapted to receive the tongue portions. Therefore, when the extended end portion is inserted in the slot in the shoulder pad member and rotated 90 the expanded end portion of the tongue is lodged between the plastic shell and the padding to securely attach the strap to the pad. In this manner the individual members may be readily interlocked by the strap members. However, the strap members may be readily disengaged to remove the pads from the wearer. The interlocking device of this invention may be used to attach the back portions as well as the front portions, thus allowing quick removal of the shoulder pads from an injured player with minimum movement of the player. The interlocking devices,

however, are slightly elastic and therefore allow slight movement of the U-shaped pads with respect to each other to provide'maximum comfort to the user.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become more readily understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the appended claims and attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a shoulder pad apparatus employing the interlocking device of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the interlocking lacing apparatus of the invention; and

FIG. 3 is an end view of the apparatus of FIG. 2.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a shoulder pad apparatus of the general design conventionally used by football players. The pad comprises opposed U-shaped members 10 and 12. The legs 11 and 13 of U-shaped members 10 and 12, respectively, are interconnected by the interlocking device 20 as described further hereinafter.

As shown in FIG. 1, one leg 1 l of the U-shaped member 10 and the opposed leg 13 of the U-shaped member 12 are joined to form a pad covering at least the upper portion of the wearers chest. The opposite legs of the members 10 and 12 are similarly joined to form a pad covering at least the upper portion of the wearers back. When joined, the pad members 10 and 12 define an opening 14 to receive the wearers neck. Such pads are generally formed of a plastic shell which supports a resilient padding material 15. Hinged epuletts 16 and 17 are conventionally secured to the base portion of the U-shaped members to define pads extending over the shoulders of the wearer.

As shown in FIG. 1, the individual U-shaped members are interconnected by device 20 which is shown more clearly in FIG. 2. The interlocking device basi-v cally comprises a pair of horizontally disposed straps 21 and 22 joined at their mid section by a vertically disposed strap 23.

Straps 21 and 22 are preferably formed of strips of webbing material such as nylon or the like sewn to form an endless loop. A rigid lug 24 is secured to each end of each of the straps 21 and 22. Each lug 24 carries a tongue 25 having an expanded end portion 26. As more clearly shown in FIG. 3, lug 24 and expanded end portion 26 are preferably disposed in coplanar relationship joined by the S-shaped portion of tongue 25.

As shown in FIG. 1, each of the leg portions of plastic shell 10 and 12 have a pair of apertures 30 and 31.'Apertures 30 and 31 are substantially horizontally disposed on opposed portions of legs 11 and 13. The width of apertures 30 and 31 is preferably approximately the same width as the S-shaped portion of tongue 25. Apertures 30 and 31 should be approximately as long as the width of the expanded end portions 26 on tongues 25 or longer. It will thus be observed that expanded end portion 26 of the tongue may be inserted in slot 30 and, when the lug is rotated, the expanded end portion 26 will be locked in the aperture below the plastic shell with the top portion of the lug 25 on the surface of the shell. Likewise, the other lugs may be placed in the other slots to secure the two legs 11 and 13 together as illustrated in FIG. 1.

It will be understood that the opposite legs of pad members and 12 may be likewise secured by a similar locking member to firmly attach the two halves into a unitary pad as illustrated in FIG. 1.

Since the expanded portions 26 are longer than the width of slots 30 and 31, it will be observed that the expanded portions cannot be withdrawn from the slot until the lug is again rotated to allow the expanded end portion to slide horizontally through the slot. Accordingly, the locking members securely attach to the two pad members 10 and 12 together as illustrated. However, the pads may be readily disassembled as desired.

The strap members may be formed of any suitable material such as nylon web or the like, or preferably may be formed of an elastic material. When one or more of strap members 21, 22 or 23 are formed of elastic members the individual pad members 10 and 12 will be allowed some degree of freedom while still remaining securely locked together.

It will be understood that the interlocking device of the invention need not necessarily take the form shown and described. For example, two parallel straps such as straps 21 and 22 with the associated lugs 24 will function satisfactorily without the interconnecting strap 23. The interconnecting strap 23, however, aids in maintaining the relationship between the legs 11 and 13 substantially rigid.

In an alternative embodiment, strap 23 may be eliminated and straps and 21 arranged to form an X. In this embodiment, particularly if the crossed straps are attached to each other at the cross-over, the two halves of the shoulder pad will be even more rigidly secured together.

It is to be understood that although the invention has been described with particular reference to specific embodiments thereof, the forms of the invention shown and described in detail are to be taken as preferred embodiments of same, and that various changes and modifications may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for interconnecting a pair of substantially U-shaped shell members positioned with the legs thereof in opposed relationship to form shoulder pads comprising:

a. mutually aligned apertures on said opposed legs of said shell members,

b. flexible strap means of sufficient length to span the approximate distance between opposed apertures, and

c. lug means comprising a relatively narrow tongue, the width of said tongue being approximately the width of said elongated apertures, secured to opposite ends of said strap means, each said lug means having an expanded end with a width approximately the length of said elongated apertures, said tongue means being substantially S-shaped, whereby the expanded end is disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the end of the lug secured to said flexible strap means.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said opposed leges of said U-shaped pad members contain a plurality of mutually aligned pairs of elongated apertures and including a plurality of said flexible strap means disposed horizontally between opposed apertures on adjacent legs.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said horizontally disposed strap means are joined by a substantially vertically disposed strap means.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said opposed legs of said U-shaped pad members contain a plurality of mutually aligned elongated apertures and including a pair of said flexible strap means crossing each other and spanning the distance between nonaligned pairs of said apertures.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said strap means are joined to each other at the point where they cross each other.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said strap means is elastic.

UNi'iED I STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTN ICATE 0F CORRECTEQN Patent No. 3,740,752 Dated June 26, 1973 lnvent x-( TRUELOVE, JOHN H.

It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, line 18 should read FIG. 3 is an end view of the apparatus of Fig, 2; and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of the interlocking lacing apparatus of the invention. Column 3, line 31 should read nated and straps 20 and 21 arranged to form an X as shown in FIG. 4. In

Signed and sealed this 25th day of December 1973.

(SEAL) M e a EDWARD FLETCHERJRQ RENE D. 'I'EGI'MEYER Attesting' Officer Acting Commissioner of Patents FORM P014050 (10-69)' v 

1. Apparatus for interconnecting a pair of substantially Ushaped shell members positioned with the legs thereof in opposed relationship to form shoulder pads comprising: a. mutually aligned apertures on said opposed legs of said shell members, b. flexible strap means of sufficient length to span the approximate distance between opposed apertures, and c. lug means comprising a relatively narrow tongue, the width of said tongue being approximately the width of said elongated apertures, secured to opposite ends of said strap means, each said lug means having an expanded end with a width approximately the length of said elongated apertures, said tongue means being substantially S-shaped, whereby the expanded end is disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the end of the lug secured to said flexible strap means.
 2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said opposed leges of said U-shaped pad members contain a plurality of mutually aligned pairs of elongated apertures and including a plurality of said flexible strap means disposed horizontally between opposed apertures on adjacent legs.
 3. Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said horizontally disposed strap means are joined by a substantially vertically disposed strap means.
 4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said opposed legs of said U-shaped pad members contain a plurality of mutually aligned elongated apertures and including a pair of said flexible strap means crossing each other and spanning the distance between non-aligned pairs of said apertures.
 5. Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said strap means are joined to each other at the point where they cross each other.
 6. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said strap means is elastic. 